The Editors

Treasury officials say they believe in free markets, Robert Kuttner writes, but spent the past month arm-twisting other banks to mount a government-induced rescue of Citigroup. He explains: Citigroup’s affiliates have exposure totaling at least $80 billion. The Treasury persuaded several other banks to put up a huge pool of capital that will promise to […]

Tom Schaller will be giving a presentation on his book, Whistling Past Dixie, tonight in Bentley Hall at 7 p.m. on the Ohio University campus in Athens, OH. If you’re a nearby reader, drop by; the event is free. —The Editors

Madeleine Elfenbein reviews Susan Faludi‘s The Terror Dream, which plumbs our post-9/11 national psyche: It took only a few days for America’s leaders to take us from rubble and confusion to “pretty damn clear.” They did it, Susan Faludi argues in her new book, The Terror Dream, by taking us from an infinitely complicated global […]

TAP Online associate editor Phoebe Connelly tells us why Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing‘s frank writing about women’s sexuality and inner lives was politically groundbreaking: Lessing’s commitment (a word she used in her 1957 essay, “The Small Personal Voice,” to describe the role of writers) to the obligations of her chosen craft have always set her […]

Brian Beutler explains how a poison-pill amendment brought down the wiretapping bill: When the House Democrats prepared to rein in the administration’s surveillance program Wednesday morning, Virginia Republican Eric Cantor knew just what buttons to push to make them panic. He announced a poison pill amendment: Nothing in the bill, Cantor wrote, “shall be construed […]

Robert Reich argues that firms that go green to improve their public relations or cut their costs are being smart — not virtuous. Al Gore’s campaign against global warming, for which he just received the Nobel Peace Prize, has encouraged many corporations to “go green” and become environmentally friendly. But do these companies deserve to […]

Megan Tady reports on SEIU’s efforts to organize shopping-center cleaning crews: SEIU began organizing mall workers in 2006 by focusing on the owner-contractor relationships of Simon Properties Group and Westfield Properties, two of the nation’s largest mall owners. Like General Growth, Simon Properties and Westfield both use cleaning contractors, and SEIU urged the companies to […]

Harold Meyerson points out that the Republican candidates can’t seem to put forth policy proposals of their own, so they’ve taken to simply repeating that they’re against everything Hillary Clinton is for: Both David Brooks and Michael Gerson, writing last Friday in the New York Times and The Post, respectively, expressed a mixture of amazement […]

Today the House is voting on a revised wiretapping bill. Brian Beutler reports on the legislation: The vote itself is a victory for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Moments after the Congress passed the August measure enshrined in the so-called Protect America Act — Pelosi demanded her committee chairmen get to work fixing it. In a letter […]